Legendary Traveler: By Earning Progress Points I will Become Supreme! Chapter 294: A Lonely Soul

"Look, I swear to the Supres that I had no ulterior motives by wanting to get to know you. I wasn't looking for a target to bully or cut down, if anything, I hoped we would be friends, like actual friends." Damien pleaded as if it were his life on the line and not Aoni's.

However, the mont Damien said the word hope, Aoni unknowingly flinched.

"As for why it was you…that all cos back to my eyes. You see, I have an attribute that allows to see the intentions or true feelings of a person, and for as long as I can rember, I've always been surrounded by a cloud of deceit and darkness."

"Yet that all changed when I spotted you trying to hide from everyone at the Bureau. In a world of darkness, you stuck out like a sore thumb. Instead of the hazy black clouds I would see around people, there was nothing, just clear, open space…and that was when I knew I could finally et soone who didn't want to use for my status, or my family's money."

"You have to believe , Aoni, I didn't an for anything to happen to you or your family…I just…I just…"

"Didn't want to be alone anymore, Sigh, I get it, Damien…" Aoni said while massaging his temples and refusing to acknowledge the fact that the young man sitting across from him was bawling his eyes out.

'Damn it, I want to hate him, I really do, especially for dragging my family into this whole thing, but he's, just like I was before eting Glacia. A lonely person looking for soone to share his troubles with.'

'And for , that didn't really start until Char went off on her own after becoming a traveler, so I get the loneliness, I understand the depression that cos along with it, and his Attribute didn't make it any easier.'

'He can literally see only the bad side of people, and here my dumb ass cos, wanting nothing to do with anyone, and zero idea about his origin and BOOM insta-target on my head.'

"Please…please believe , Aoni…I just wanted a friend, soone I didn't have to hide my true thoughts from, soone who didn't want to use like a tool." Damien cried while furiously wiping his face with his sleeve.

| Host, this situation isn't unsalvageable. From the beginning, your presence and that of the Thurstons were falsified, so at best, they could only acquire surface-level intelligence such as Jason Thurston's inco and basic knowledge one could obtain by speaking with a neighbor |

| Add in the fact that Traveler Cheshire has been diverting attention away from prying eyes any ti the Host or Thurston na appears, it would be advisable not to turn away from this friendship |

'Tsk, since when did you start caring about my personal life?' Aoni grumbled while staring long and hard at Damien.

| Personal Growth isn't limited to that of the physical, but also the mind. Progress is progress |

"Sigh, will you stop crying already?" making his decision and tossing a table cloth at Damien's face, Aoni took a deep breath to organize his thoughts before speaking.

"Damien, I don't mind being friends, but we need to get a few things straight first. I get that your background puts you in a weird position; however, I need to know EVERYTHING, like, are there spies staking out my house, or following around everywhere I go. What about my parents and siblings?"

"No..*sniffle* When the Cheshire Intelligence gatherers ca back with nothing special, you guys were pretty much kept on light surveillance, like internet browser bugs and such. However, for so reason, that didn't work often, as soone or sothing would stop it from gathering data…"

'Heh, nice work Archie,' Aoni thought while imagining his older brother ranting at his monitors and attacking any virus that tried to affect his pc.

"It's all been pretty basic stuff, but when sothing happened to that Markus guy, your na ca up in the list of people he's interacted with, that's where I stepped in, and cut it off at the source, erasing your na from the files," Damien said while blowing his nose into the cloth.

"After that, I called you right away and asked to et up…"

---

After spending so more ti talking things through with Damien and ensuring him that he wouldn't toss the pitiful guy away, Aoni pressed him about how he even ca out to the café and whether or not he was followed.

"Over the year's I've gotten pretty good at giving my guards the slip, so I made sure no one was following or bugging my phone before coming to et up."

Was the answer Aoni received making him acknowledge that Damien's sneaking/stealth abilities weren't terrible and, in fact, quite good.

In the end, the two spent so more ti hanging out before going their separate ways, promising to keep in touch through texts and eventual et-ups at this café. However, when Aoni finally made it back to the dorm, the first thing he did was call Archie and inform him of people watching the family.

The reply was, "No shit, when aren't we being watched? " which made Aoni scoff and hang up on him.

---

Lying on the floor of his dorm's living room, Aoni stared up at the ceiling in silence.

'And here I was thinking I was being clever by having Archie take down Markus with Untraceable rcs…fucking stupid of .'

| In the Host's defense, if it weren't for Markus's Family Status, it probably would have gone differently, but alas, that is the result of punching above your weight class |

'Yeah yeah, bit off more than a weak little 4-Star like myself could chew, still, good to know there's soone out there watching my back…'

| ... |

'Other than you, of course, how silly of to forget there's a mysterious chatbox keeping tabs on what I do and allowing to progress unhindered,' rolling his eyes, Aoni sat up and went to shower before heading to bed. It had been a long day for him, and while the result wasn't too bad, he knew that moving forward, safety would take precedence over his reckless whims, at least here on Terra, that is.